Fic: "The Painting Room" for jen_d
Title: The Painting Room
Author: cosmic_llin
Recipient's name: jen_d
Rating: G
Character(s): Ginny, Tonks; Ron, Hermione, the Order
Warnings: none
Author's notes: I always wondered how Ginny and Tonks got to be such good friends - this is my take on it. I did try to incorporate more of the characters you wanted, but it turned out a bit messy! So hopefully this is ok!
Ginny Weasley was bored, and miserable, and cross, and she didn’t care who knew it. She and her family had been at Grimmauld Place for almost two weeks now, and she was not happy.
It had been fun for the first few days - exploring the house, choosing their rooms, wondering about the Order. But the house was just big and scary and full of Dark magic, her room was boring, and they hadn’t been told anything interesting about the Order at all. They hadn’t even seen anyone. Sometimes Ginny heard people coming in and out at night, but so far she had been sent to bed before the meetings started, and she hadn’t met any of the fascinating new people that she knew were in and out all the time.
At least in the first week, she’d had Ron. The two of them had never really been close, not in that sharing secrets and dreams kind of way, but Fred and George had always done things together and Percy was a loner, and so Ginny and Ron were thrown together fairly often. They enjoyed one another’s company, when there was nobody else around. Ginny could talk for hours if she found someone who would listen, and Ron was usually happy to. Ron, on the other hand, always came up with the best ideas for games and diversions. They knew that once they were back in school they’d go back to ignoring one another, but while they were stuck together it was a pleasant enough arrangement.
Until Hermione arrived.
Ginny liked Hermione, she really did. She was closer to Hermione than she was to Ron, really. And they shared a room, and talked when they were supposed to be asleep, and it was lovely to have another girl around, someone who understood. But during the day, Ron and Hermione tended to go off together.
It wasn’t anybody’s fault, she supposed. They were best friends. They were together all the time at school. It was only natural that they should leave her out a bit, even if it was completely by accident.
Still, it hurt. And Ginny was bored, and miserable, and cross. And so, she was sitting alone at the kitchen table, peeling potatoes for lunch, badly and angrily. She had turned off the WWN - the bubbly presenters were getting on her nerves. Why should anybody else be happy when Ginny was so gloomy?
‘Cheer up, Weasley kid,’ said a voice.
Ginny spun in her seat to see a woman in the doorway. She was leaning against the door frame, looking curiously at Ginny. She had big, dark eyes set in a heart-shaped face, and long black hair. She winked.
‘The name’s Ginny, actually,’ Ginny said. ‘And I don’t want to cheer up. I’m happy wallowing, thank you very much.’
The woman grinned. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘Your mum talks about you all the time, but I didn’t know your name. Nice to meet you, Ginny. I’m Tonks. I was just on patrol with your dad and he sent me here to get some lunch, since I just eat junk if left to my own devices.’
Ginny shrugged an acknowledgement, but curiosity overcame moodiness and she asked:
‘Are you in the Order?’
‘Yup.’
‘But you can’t have been in it the first time, right? I mean, you look too young…’
‘You’re right about that, I was only a little girl when the last war ended. I got recruited by Dumbledore and Moody. But enough about me - what’s getting you down, Ginny?’
Ginny sighed. ‘I’m bored. There’s nothing to do here. And there’s nobody to talk to, either.’
‘Nobody to talk to? What about your brothers? What about that other girl?’
‘Hermione?’
‘Yeah, her…’
‘She and Ron just go off by themselves all the time. And Fred and George are always in their room doing whatever it is they do. I wish Harry was here…’
‘Harry Potter?’ Tonks raised an eyebrow.
‘Yeah… he’s Ron’s best friend.’
‘I suppose you’ve got a bit of a soft spot for him too, though?’ Tonks asked, grinning.
‘Well… to be honest, yeah, a bit. But that’s not why I want him to come here. If only he were here, then he and Ron could go off and do stuff, and Hermione and I could be left out together.’
Tonks laughed, and Ginny couldn’t help smiling a little bit.
‘Well, I for one would be glad to swap places with you!’ said Tonks. ‘Guard duty at all hours, sneaking around at work, the prospect of fighting Death Eaters - compared to lazing around, doing a bit of tidying up and potato peeling! You’ve got it easy.’
‘Oh, where do you work?’ Ginny asked, no longer even trying to hide her interest.
‘I’m an Auror,’ Tonks said.
‘Cool!’
‘Yeah, it is,’ Tonks agreed. ‘I’ve only been doing it a year, I still can’t quite get used to the idea that I really am one.’
‘It must be really hard work…’ Ginny said.
‘Yeah, it is. Especially these days, since I’m working for the Order as well. I hardly get a minute to myself! You know, this is the first conversation I’ve had in days that wasn’t about guard duty or Dark wizards or something.’
‘Well, I’m glad to be of service,’ Ginny said.
‘You know, I like you, Ginny Weasley,’ said Tonks. ‘Here, let me take care of those for you. Depilus!’
She pointed her wand at the pile of potatoes and the skins disappeared, leaving the pile gleaming white and ready for cooking. Or at least mostly. There were still a few bits of skin, but then not everyone was as good at kitchen spells as Molly Weasley.
‘Wow!’ said Ginny. ‘Thanks!’
‘No problem,’ Tonks said. ‘Now, let’s go and do something fun.’
* * *
‘Aha!’ cried Tonks, as she opened one of the doors. ‘I knew it was around here somewhere!’ She turned triumphantly to Ginny. ‘My mum used to play here when she was little, she told me about this room.’
‘Your mum used to play here?’
‘Yeah, my mum was a Black originally. Of course they weren’t impressed when she married a muggle-born, and she hasn’t been here since, but apparently she and her sisters were here all the time as children. And this was her favourite part of the house. Welcome to the Painting Room!’
She flung the door fully open and ushered Ginny in.
‘Oooh…’ Ginny said. ‘This is cool…’
‘Isn’t it?’ Tonks agreed. ‘Where shall we start?’
They closed the door behind them and came fully into the room. Ginny gazed around her, impressed. The walls and floor were spattered with paint, there was a stack of easels in one corner, and a table covered in tins of paint in another. There was an umbrella stand full of paintbrushes of various sizes, and blank canvases propped up against one wall.
‘You do like, painting, don’t you?’ Tonks asked, anxiously.
‘I haven’t painted in years…’ Ginny said. ‘I’d love to have a go, though!’
‘Great!’ said Tonks. ‘Me too! Let’s get started.’
She hurried over to where there was a drawer full of large pieces of paper, took out two, and pinned them to the wall. She took two brushes, handed one to Ginny, and opened one of the paintboxes. Ginny grabbed a paintbox of her own and began.
* * *
When Molly called them all down to lunch, Tonks had to perform a quick cleaning charm to get the paint out of their clothes before they ran down to join the others.
‘This is our secret, right?’ Ginny asked anxiously as they hurried down the stairs to the kitchen.
‘Of course it is,’ said Tonks. ‘We won’t tell anybody else unless you want to.’
Ginny smiled with relief, and they went for lunch.
* * *
After that, Tonks dropped by most days, and spent time with Ginny as often as she could. Now that Tonks was coming by regularly for meals, and carrying reports back of Molly’s wonderful cooking, other members of the Order began to as well, and Ginny was thrilled to be meeting so many fascinating people. It turned out that Tonks was a Metamorphmagus, and there was no end to the entertainment that provided, although noses at mealtimes were the best. Professor Lupin came around often, and turned out to be a very amusing dinner guest. Hestia was kind, and often brought sweets for the Weasleys and Hermione. Kingsley knew all sorts of stories. Mrs Figg brought some of her cats to meet them. Miss Vance was stern, but she could never help laughing when Elphias cracked one of his awful jokes. Sirius, surrounded by people suddenly, became much more agreeable and less inclined to melancholy, and would sometimes even join Ginny in playing with Crookshanks.
But amongst all of this excitement, it was still the times with Tonks in the Painting Room that Ginny liked the best. Sometimes they threw paint around the place with wild abandon, getting covered in all different colours, and afterwards Tonks would make Ginny do the cleaning spell because she was better at it, and Tonks could never quite get the big blotches out. Sometimes they painted big, fantastical landscapes. Sometimes they painted dragons, from the pictures Charlie sent Ginny. Sometimes they painted pictures of the people in the Order, and the Weasleys, or people Ginny knew from school. Tonks liked to paint famous witches and wizards, especially Myron Wagtail, one of the Weird Sisters.
‘I know our paintings aren’t that good,’ Ginny remarked one afternoon, adding the finishing touches to a picture of Crookshanks. ‘But I like them a lot.’
‘So do I,’ Tonks smiled. ‘And speak for yourself, Weasley kid! I think my paintings are great. If I wasn’t already an Auror, I’d become an artist!’
‘Really?’ Ginny asked earnestly. ‘Tonks, did you always know you wanted to be an Auror?’
‘Nope,’ said Tonks. ‘It took me a long time to decide. I wanted to be one when I was little, when the Aurors were bringing in the Dark Eaters - it felt like they had saved us all, and I admired them so much… but then for a long time I wasn’t sure what I wanted to be. I went through a lot of different phases, until I finally decided when I was a couple of years older than you that I wanted to be an Auror.’
‘So, you don’t think I need to worry that I haven’t decided yet what I want to be?’ Ginny asked.
‘Heck, no! You have plenty of time to think about it.’
‘I am thinking about it - but it’s so hard to imagine. I still feel so little sometimes. I know I’ll always be the baby of the family, however old I get. Having six older brothers, you get used to it. And now Bill’s a curse-breaker, and Charlie works with dragons, and Percy’s… well, Percy isn’t here any more… and the twins are bound to do something incredible, and Ron and Harry and Hermione will probably save the world and defeat You-Know-Who and become Aurors, and… there I’ll be. Sometimes it feels like, whatever I do, it’ll never be enough to live up to what they’ve all done. And it doesn’t help that I’m stuck here all summer, too. Everyone in the Order is going off and doing heroic things and saving the world and risking their lives all the time, and all I can do to help is tidy a load of rooms. It all makes me feel so… purposeless.’
‘Ginny, you’ll do amazing things too, I bet you will…’
‘It’s easy to say that… but I can’t see it! All I see now is myself, a silly, useless fourteen-year-old girl who hasn’t even started her holiday homework because she can’t even see past the next day!’
‘Do you want to see the future?’ Tonks asked, abruptly.
‘I… what do you mean?’ asked Ginny.
Tonks took a deep breath, concentrating. Freckles erupted on her face, her hair lengthened and reddened, and she shrunk a couple of inches. When she had finished, she looked like Ginny, and yet not like Ginny.
‘That’s me!’ Ginny gasped. ‘But… older and… cooler!’
‘It isn’t as far off as you think,’ Tonks’s voice said, from the older Ginny’s mouth. ‘I know it seems that way now, but the time will fly, I promise. And, in a few years time, this will be you, and you’ll be leaving Hogwarts and doing cool things and surpassing everyone. And people will say things like: “Fred and George? Aren’t they Ginny Weasley’s brothers?” And I’ll be able to say that I knew you before you got your big chance, and I saw your potential all along.’ She flourished her paintbrush to emphasise her point.
Ginny smiled, and her older self beamed back.
‘That helps,’ Ginny said. ‘It really does. Thank you, Tonks.’
‘No problem.’
‘But why wait?’ Ginny asked, suddenly. ‘I want to do something cool now - I want to show everyone that I’m worth their attention. Will you help me?’
‘Of course I will!’ Tonks said. ‘What do you want to do?’
‘I want to do something productive - when people ask what I did this summer, I want to be able to say: “I started something, and I worked hard at it, and then I finished.” And I want to do something that people will like, something that will make them happy. And I want to do something for the Order.’
‘Did you have anything particular in mind?’
‘Yes.’
* * *
The summer went by. Harry eventually arrived. Ginny was kept busy, what with making the house fit for habitation, and spending time with Hermione, Ron and Harry. Tonks was busy too, but at least a couple of times a week they made time to go off together to the Painting Room and work on their project. Ginny worked on it by herself sometimes, too. She worked hard, and she made sure to make it perfect - Tonks was always impressed when she came to inspect her progress.
* * *
There was an Order meeting, in the week before school started. As Tonks came in, she saw Ginny hanging anxiously over the banister above her.
‘Wotcher, Ginny,’ she said. ‘Is it ready?’
‘Yes!’ Ginny whispered. ‘Will you tell them all not to leave right away? We can do it just like we said.’
‘Will you be able to get it ready on your own?’
‘Of course I will! Go and have your meeting, I’ll arrange everything.’
‘Alright, Gin, I’ll leave it in your capable hands. See you later!’
Tonks headed into the kitchen, and Ginny stayed to watch the rest of the Order arrive before going upstairs to prepare the surprise.
She managed to get it downstairs by herself without too much trouble. It was big - taller than her and twice as wide as that - but it slid down the stairs easily enough and she was able to guide it to stop it from crashing all the way down. Once she reached the bottom it was just a case of propping it against the wall and covering it with a dust sheet. Then she fetched the two big lamps from the front sitting room and put one on either side, lighting them carefully. Next, she went upstairs to tell Ron and the others to come down once they heard the meeting ending. They were confused, but agreed readily.
Then there was nothing to do but wait, and wait she did. She sat on the stairs, thinking back on the summer. Considering that it had started so unpromisingly, it had been rather a good holiday. She felt a renewed confidence and enthusiasm bubbling within her - she had seen her plan through, and made it work. What was to stop her from doing whatever else she wanted?
The noise level in the kitchen rose - the Order were coming out. The door opened and Sturgis came through and summoned his coat from the hooks on the back wall.
‘Just a minute, just a minute!’ Ginny heard Tonks say. ‘Before everyone hurries off, there’s one other thing to attend to. Ginny?’
The Order crowded out of the kitchen and into the hallway to see what Ginny wanted. Ron, Hermione, Harry and the twins came downstairs to see what all the fuss was about. Ginny blushed, and cleared her throat.
‘At the beginning of the summer, she said, a little shakily, ‘I was bored. I felt like I had nothing to do, nobody to talk to, nothing really to contribute. Tonks helped me out, and I decided that, if I couldn’t really help the Order in any practical way, I could at least do something nice for you all. Because you deserve it. Tonks did a lot of work on it too…’
‘But it was all Ginny’s idea,’ said Tonks. ‘Shall we?’
She moved to stand on one side of the sheet-covered shape, and Ginny moved to the other.
‘Without further ado,’ Ginny said, ‘I present to you all… my masterpiece!’
With a flourish, the two of them threw off the dust sheet.
‘It’s a painting of the Order!’ said Lupin.
‘Oh, it’s lovely!’ said Hestia.
‘Are we all on there?’ Sirius asked.
‘Yes,’ said Ginny. ‘Everybody.’
‘It’s wonderful, Ginny, you are clever!’ said Molly, hugging her daughter.
‘Hey, we’re on it too!’ said Fred.
‘I said everyone, didn’t I?’ Ginny asked. ‘I didn’t want anybody to be left out. Everyone who’s set foot in the house since the beginning of the summer is on there.’
‘Ginny, I didn’t know that you could paint,’ said McGonagall.
‘Neither did I!’ said Ginny.
‘Can we hang it in the kitchen?’ asked Tonks.
‘I really think we ought to,’ said Sirius. ‘It deserves nothing less. Come on, let’s do it right now.’
He and Lupin picked up the painting between them and moved it into the kitchen. Everyone else followed. Ginny and Tonks waited in the hall for a moment.
‘That went well!’ Tonks said.
‘It did, didn’t it?’ Ginny said, her eyes shining. ‘Thank you for all your help, Tonks. I couldn’t have done it without you.’
‘Any time, Ginny, any time. Aww, come here, will you?’
She drew Ginny in for a hug, and squeezed her tight for a moment. Then the two of them went to watch, as their masterpiece was given pride of place.
Author: cosmic_llin
Recipient's name: jen_d
Rating: G
Character(s): Ginny, Tonks; Ron, Hermione, the Order
Warnings: none
Author's notes: I always wondered how Ginny and Tonks got to be such good friends - this is my take on it. I did try to incorporate more of the characters you wanted, but it turned out a bit messy! So hopefully this is ok!
Ginny Weasley was bored, and miserable, and cross, and she didn’t care who knew it. She and her family had been at Grimmauld Place for almost two weeks now, and she was not happy.
It had been fun for the first few days - exploring the house, choosing their rooms, wondering about the Order. But the house was just big and scary and full of Dark magic, her room was boring, and they hadn’t been told anything interesting about the Order at all. They hadn’t even seen anyone. Sometimes Ginny heard people coming in and out at night, but so far she had been sent to bed before the meetings started, and she hadn’t met any of the fascinating new people that she knew were in and out all the time.
At least in the first week, she’d had Ron. The two of them had never really been close, not in that sharing secrets and dreams kind of way, but Fred and George had always done things together and Percy was a loner, and so Ginny and Ron were thrown together fairly often. They enjoyed one another’s company, when there was nobody else around. Ginny could talk for hours if she found someone who would listen, and Ron was usually happy to. Ron, on the other hand, always came up with the best ideas for games and diversions. They knew that once they were back in school they’d go back to ignoring one another, but while they were stuck together it was a pleasant enough arrangement.
Until Hermione arrived.
Ginny liked Hermione, she really did. She was closer to Hermione than she was to Ron, really. And they shared a room, and talked when they were supposed to be asleep, and it was lovely to have another girl around, someone who understood. But during the day, Ron and Hermione tended to go off together.
It wasn’t anybody’s fault, she supposed. They were best friends. They were together all the time at school. It was only natural that they should leave her out a bit, even if it was completely by accident.
Still, it hurt. And Ginny was bored, and miserable, and cross. And so, she was sitting alone at the kitchen table, peeling potatoes for lunch, badly and angrily. She had turned off the WWN - the bubbly presenters were getting on her nerves. Why should anybody else be happy when Ginny was so gloomy?
‘Cheer up, Weasley kid,’ said a voice.
Ginny spun in her seat to see a woman in the doorway. She was leaning against the door frame, looking curiously at Ginny. She had big, dark eyes set in a heart-shaped face, and long black hair. She winked.
‘The name’s Ginny, actually,’ Ginny said. ‘And I don’t want to cheer up. I’m happy wallowing, thank you very much.’
The woman grinned. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘Your mum talks about you all the time, but I didn’t know your name. Nice to meet you, Ginny. I’m Tonks. I was just on patrol with your dad and he sent me here to get some lunch, since I just eat junk if left to my own devices.’
Ginny shrugged an acknowledgement, but curiosity overcame moodiness and she asked:
‘Are you in the Order?’
‘Yup.’
‘But you can’t have been in it the first time, right? I mean, you look too young…’
‘You’re right about that, I was only a little girl when the last war ended. I got recruited by Dumbledore and Moody. But enough about me - what’s getting you down, Ginny?’
Ginny sighed. ‘I’m bored. There’s nothing to do here. And there’s nobody to talk to, either.’
‘Nobody to talk to? What about your brothers? What about that other girl?’
‘Hermione?’
‘Yeah, her…’
‘She and Ron just go off by themselves all the time. And Fred and George are always in their room doing whatever it is they do. I wish Harry was here…’
‘Harry Potter?’ Tonks raised an eyebrow.
‘Yeah… he’s Ron’s best friend.’
‘I suppose you’ve got a bit of a soft spot for him too, though?’ Tonks asked, grinning.
‘Well… to be honest, yeah, a bit. But that’s not why I want him to come here. If only he were here, then he and Ron could go off and do stuff, and Hermione and I could be left out together.’
Tonks laughed, and Ginny couldn’t help smiling a little bit.
‘Well, I for one would be glad to swap places with you!’ said Tonks. ‘Guard duty at all hours, sneaking around at work, the prospect of fighting Death Eaters - compared to lazing around, doing a bit of tidying up and potato peeling! You’ve got it easy.’
‘Oh, where do you work?’ Ginny asked, no longer even trying to hide her interest.
‘I’m an Auror,’ Tonks said.
‘Cool!’
‘Yeah, it is,’ Tonks agreed. ‘I’ve only been doing it a year, I still can’t quite get used to the idea that I really am one.’
‘It must be really hard work…’ Ginny said.
‘Yeah, it is. Especially these days, since I’m working for the Order as well. I hardly get a minute to myself! You know, this is the first conversation I’ve had in days that wasn’t about guard duty or Dark wizards or something.’
‘Well, I’m glad to be of service,’ Ginny said.
‘You know, I like you, Ginny Weasley,’ said Tonks. ‘Here, let me take care of those for you. Depilus!’
She pointed her wand at the pile of potatoes and the skins disappeared, leaving the pile gleaming white and ready for cooking. Or at least mostly. There were still a few bits of skin, but then not everyone was as good at kitchen spells as Molly Weasley.
‘Wow!’ said Ginny. ‘Thanks!’
‘No problem,’ Tonks said. ‘Now, let’s go and do something fun.’
* * *
‘Aha!’ cried Tonks, as she opened one of the doors. ‘I knew it was around here somewhere!’ She turned triumphantly to Ginny. ‘My mum used to play here when she was little, she told me about this room.’
‘Your mum used to play here?’
‘Yeah, my mum was a Black originally. Of course they weren’t impressed when she married a muggle-born, and she hasn’t been here since, but apparently she and her sisters were here all the time as children. And this was her favourite part of the house. Welcome to the Painting Room!’
She flung the door fully open and ushered Ginny in.
‘Oooh…’ Ginny said. ‘This is cool…’
‘Isn’t it?’ Tonks agreed. ‘Where shall we start?’
They closed the door behind them and came fully into the room. Ginny gazed around her, impressed. The walls and floor were spattered with paint, there was a stack of easels in one corner, and a table covered in tins of paint in another. There was an umbrella stand full of paintbrushes of various sizes, and blank canvases propped up against one wall.
‘You do like, painting, don’t you?’ Tonks asked, anxiously.
‘I haven’t painted in years…’ Ginny said. ‘I’d love to have a go, though!’
‘Great!’ said Tonks. ‘Me too! Let’s get started.’
She hurried over to where there was a drawer full of large pieces of paper, took out two, and pinned them to the wall. She took two brushes, handed one to Ginny, and opened one of the paintboxes. Ginny grabbed a paintbox of her own and began.
* * *
When Molly called them all down to lunch, Tonks had to perform a quick cleaning charm to get the paint out of their clothes before they ran down to join the others.
‘This is our secret, right?’ Ginny asked anxiously as they hurried down the stairs to the kitchen.
‘Of course it is,’ said Tonks. ‘We won’t tell anybody else unless you want to.’
Ginny smiled with relief, and they went for lunch.
* * *
After that, Tonks dropped by most days, and spent time with Ginny as often as she could. Now that Tonks was coming by regularly for meals, and carrying reports back of Molly’s wonderful cooking, other members of the Order began to as well, and Ginny was thrilled to be meeting so many fascinating people. It turned out that Tonks was a Metamorphmagus, and there was no end to the entertainment that provided, although noses at mealtimes were the best. Professor Lupin came around often, and turned out to be a very amusing dinner guest. Hestia was kind, and often brought sweets for the Weasleys and Hermione. Kingsley knew all sorts of stories. Mrs Figg brought some of her cats to meet them. Miss Vance was stern, but she could never help laughing when Elphias cracked one of his awful jokes. Sirius, surrounded by people suddenly, became much more agreeable and less inclined to melancholy, and would sometimes even join Ginny in playing with Crookshanks.
But amongst all of this excitement, it was still the times with Tonks in the Painting Room that Ginny liked the best. Sometimes they threw paint around the place with wild abandon, getting covered in all different colours, and afterwards Tonks would make Ginny do the cleaning spell because she was better at it, and Tonks could never quite get the big blotches out. Sometimes they painted big, fantastical landscapes. Sometimes they painted dragons, from the pictures Charlie sent Ginny. Sometimes they painted pictures of the people in the Order, and the Weasleys, or people Ginny knew from school. Tonks liked to paint famous witches and wizards, especially Myron Wagtail, one of the Weird Sisters.
‘I know our paintings aren’t that good,’ Ginny remarked one afternoon, adding the finishing touches to a picture of Crookshanks. ‘But I like them a lot.’
‘So do I,’ Tonks smiled. ‘And speak for yourself, Weasley kid! I think my paintings are great. If I wasn’t already an Auror, I’d become an artist!’
‘Really?’ Ginny asked earnestly. ‘Tonks, did you always know you wanted to be an Auror?’
‘Nope,’ said Tonks. ‘It took me a long time to decide. I wanted to be one when I was little, when the Aurors were bringing in the Dark Eaters - it felt like they had saved us all, and I admired them so much… but then for a long time I wasn’t sure what I wanted to be. I went through a lot of different phases, until I finally decided when I was a couple of years older than you that I wanted to be an Auror.’
‘So, you don’t think I need to worry that I haven’t decided yet what I want to be?’ Ginny asked.
‘Heck, no! You have plenty of time to think about it.’
‘I am thinking about it - but it’s so hard to imagine. I still feel so little sometimes. I know I’ll always be the baby of the family, however old I get. Having six older brothers, you get used to it. And now Bill’s a curse-breaker, and Charlie works with dragons, and Percy’s… well, Percy isn’t here any more… and the twins are bound to do something incredible, and Ron and Harry and Hermione will probably save the world and defeat You-Know-Who and become Aurors, and… there I’ll be. Sometimes it feels like, whatever I do, it’ll never be enough to live up to what they’ve all done. And it doesn’t help that I’m stuck here all summer, too. Everyone in the Order is going off and doing heroic things and saving the world and risking their lives all the time, and all I can do to help is tidy a load of rooms. It all makes me feel so… purposeless.’
‘Ginny, you’ll do amazing things too, I bet you will…’
‘It’s easy to say that… but I can’t see it! All I see now is myself, a silly, useless fourteen-year-old girl who hasn’t even started her holiday homework because she can’t even see past the next day!’
‘Do you want to see the future?’ Tonks asked, abruptly.
‘I… what do you mean?’ asked Ginny.
Tonks took a deep breath, concentrating. Freckles erupted on her face, her hair lengthened and reddened, and she shrunk a couple of inches. When she had finished, she looked like Ginny, and yet not like Ginny.
‘That’s me!’ Ginny gasped. ‘But… older and… cooler!’
‘It isn’t as far off as you think,’ Tonks’s voice said, from the older Ginny’s mouth. ‘I know it seems that way now, but the time will fly, I promise. And, in a few years time, this will be you, and you’ll be leaving Hogwarts and doing cool things and surpassing everyone. And people will say things like: “Fred and George? Aren’t they Ginny Weasley’s brothers?” And I’ll be able to say that I knew you before you got your big chance, and I saw your potential all along.’ She flourished her paintbrush to emphasise her point.
Ginny smiled, and her older self beamed back.
‘That helps,’ Ginny said. ‘It really does. Thank you, Tonks.’
‘No problem.’
‘But why wait?’ Ginny asked, suddenly. ‘I want to do something cool now - I want to show everyone that I’m worth their attention. Will you help me?’
‘Of course I will!’ Tonks said. ‘What do you want to do?’
‘I want to do something productive - when people ask what I did this summer, I want to be able to say: “I started something, and I worked hard at it, and then I finished.” And I want to do something that people will like, something that will make them happy. And I want to do something for the Order.’
‘Did you have anything particular in mind?’
‘Yes.’
* * *
The summer went by. Harry eventually arrived. Ginny was kept busy, what with making the house fit for habitation, and spending time with Hermione, Ron and Harry. Tonks was busy too, but at least a couple of times a week they made time to go off together to the Painting Room and work on their project. Ginny worked on it by herself sometimes, too. She worked hard, and she made sure to make it perfect - Tonks was always impressed when she came to inspect her progress.
* * *
There was an Order meeting, in the week before school started. As Tonks came in, she saw Ginny hanging anxiously over the banister above her.
‘Wotcher, Ginny,’ she said. ‘Is it ready?’
‘Yes!’ Ginny whispered. ‘Will you tell them all not to leave right away? We can do it just like we said.’
‘Will you be able to get it ready on your own?’
‘Of course I will! Go and have your meeting, I’ll arrange everything.’
‘Alright, Gin, I’ll leave it in your capable hands. See you later!’
Tonks headed into the kitchen, and Ginny stayed to watch the rest of the Order arrive before going upstairs to prepare the surprise.
She managed to get it downstairs by herself without too much trouble. It was big - taller than her and twice as wide as that - but it slid down the stairs easily enough and she was able to guide it to stop it from crashing all the way down. Once she reached the bottom it was just a case of propping it against the wall and covering it with a dust sheet. Then she fetched the two big lamps from the front sitting room and put one on either side, lighting them carefully. Next, she went upstairs to tell Ron and the others to come down once they heard the meeting ending. They were confused, but agreed readily.
Then there was nothing to do but wait, and wait she did. She sat on the stairs, thinking back on the summer. Considering that it had started so unpromisingly, it had been rather a good holiday. She felt a renewed confidence and enthusiasm bubbling within her - she had seen her plan through, and made it work. What was to stop her from doing whatever else she wanted?
The noise level in the kitchen rose - the Order were coming out. The door opened and Sturgis came through and summoned his coat from the hooks on the back wall.
‘Just a minute, just a minute!’ Ginny heard Tonks say. ‘Before everyone hurries off, there’s one other thing to attend to. Ginny?’
The Order crowded out of the kitchen and into the hallway to see what Ginny wanted. Ron, Hermione, Harry and the twins came downstairs to see what all the fuss was about. Ginny blushed, and cleared her throat.
‘At the beginning of the summer, she said, a little shakily, ‘I was bored. I felt like I had nothing to do, nobody to talk to, nothing really to contribute. Tonks helped me out, and I decided that, if I couldn’t really help the Order in any practical way, I could at least do something nice for you all. Because you deserve it. Tonks did a lot of work on it too…’
‘But it was all Ginny’s idea,’ said Tonks. ‘Shall we?’
She moved to stand on one side of the sheet-covered shape, and Ginny moved to the other.
‘Without further ado,’ Ginny said, ‘I present to you all… my masterpiece!’
With a flourish, the two of them threw off the dust sheet.
‘It’s a painting of the Order!’ said Lupin.
‘Oh, it’s lovely!’ said Hestia.
‘Are we all on there?’ Sirius asked.
‘Yes,’ said Ginny. ‘Everybody.’
‘It’s wonderful, Ginny, you are clever!’ said Molly, hugging her daughter.
‘Hey, we’re on it too!’ said Fred.
‘I said everyone, didn’t I?’ Ginny asked. ‘I didn’t want anybody to be left out. Everyone who’s set foot in the house since the beginning of the summer is on there.’
‘Ginny, I didn’t know that you could paint,’ said McGonagall.
‘Neither did I!’ said Ginny.
‘Can we hang it in the kitchen?’ asked Tonks.
‘I really think we ought to,’ said Sirius. ‘It deserves nothing less. Come on, let’s do it right now.’
He and Lupin picked up the painting between them and moved it into the kitchen. Everyone else followed. Ginny and Tonks waited in the hall for a moment.
‘That went well!’ Tonks said.
‘It did, didn’t it?’ Ginny said, her eyes shining. ‘Thank you for all your help, Tonks. I couldn’t have done it without you.’
‘Any time, Ginny, any time. Aww, come here, will you?’
She drew Ginny in for a hug, and squeezed her tight for a moment. Then the two of them went to watch, as their masterpiece was given pride of place.